Thanks to those of you who reviewed. I always appreciate your comments.

A Tropical Nightmare.

By Lingren.

Previously:

"So do I. Major, Colonel, find out what you can on this. I'll try to keep a lid on things this end, but we must recover both Dr. Cruz and the missing Naquadah. I needn't tell you that this is unofficial business as far as the Government is concerned."

"Yes Sir."

"Good luck people, and go careful out there, we don't know where this might lead yet."

Chapter 2

Jack was getting his wish at last. Action was something which he had been craving, and now it was actually happening he felt a lot happier, plus it gave him the added bonus of getting out of doing his paperwork. They took off in Jack's truck and found the Cruz's house in a very nice suburb of Springs. As they made their way towards the house, Jack could feel the neighbour's eyes boring into the back of his head, and just knew the little old lady across the road was peering at them from behind her lace curtain. When he was getting out of the truck he'd caught a glimpse of her just before she dropped the curtain back in place, only to take another peep now. He whispered to Sam about checking out the neighbour afterwards, perhaps if she was that nosy she may have witnessed something unusual.

Sam fumbled with the lock and in no time at all she was opening the door. Jack smiled down at her and she shrugged.

"All part of the service Sir," she grinned back.

"I'm not gonna ask about what that implies Carter."

Sam snorted with amusement, especially when he added a passing comment.

"You can pick my lock any day," he murmured, making her almost whimper with longing, but she couldn't look at him for fear of giving too much away. They looked around at the mess in the room.

Sam's heart-felt retort remained unsaid, as she also took in the state of the place. Papers were scattered over the floor, a half eaten meal was still sitting on the table and abandoned in a great hurry by the look of it. Sam filtered thought the papers on the floor, but found nothing to tie in with the mystery. There was no incriminating evidence, and no clues as to the whereabouts of Paul Cruz or what had happened to him. Jack meanwhile took a look out the back and Sam looked upstairs. Still nothing.

Jack saw that the back door had been kicked in, and the broken shards of glass held a small clue. A drop of someone's blood, but who's? Was it Paul's or his abductor's? He carefully placed it in a plastic bag and dropped it into Sam's brief case. The computer in the study was still switched on, and Sam ran through all the files she could access. Yet, still nothing pointed to why or where or who.

"There's nothing here Sir. Either Paul, had nothing to hide, or he has it well hidden, or whoever took him, already has all the information necessary. It's difficult to find something when you don't actually know what it is you're looking for."

"Yeah, that would help, but obviously there's nothin' here. Let's check out the old lady across the street. My guess is she'll know somethin' about what happened here. If she's anything like my grandma she wouldn't miss a thing," he stated, grinning wryly, making Sam smile too.

Jack never spoke about his family and Sam filed that little tidbit of information away in her memory, wondering if his grandma was still alive or not. Knowing he had a real family out there seemed to make him more human somehow; more normal. Not that he wasn't normal; just detached in his own way from everyone.

They crossed over the road and Jack rapped quickly on the door, which opened almost immediately. A shrivelled old lady stood back from the door to allow them in. Jack hesitated, and she gave him an old fashioned look.

"You're military people, and I know Paul worked for the military, so I knew it would only be a matter of time before someone showed up to look for him. Come on in folks. I don't bite!"

"How do you know we're military and that we're looking for Dr. Cruz," Jack asked, removing his sun glasses to look at the woman standing in the shadows of the house, before making a move to enter.

"I can spot a military man a mile away, and you screamed Military to me."

"Guilty as accused," he said, flashing his ID and gave her a devastating smile. "Colonel Jack O'Neill, USAF, and this is Major Sam Carter."

"Martha Mallory." she replied, introduced herself, and shaking them both by the hand. "My late husband was in the Army. General Timothy Mallory he was when he retired. Come on in dears," she reiterated. "The coffee's on. Sit down and I'll tell you what I know."

Jack gave Sam a glance wondering where this woman was leading them, hopefully not straight down the garden path. They both sat down on the sofa, the only seat available other than the one which Mrs Mallory had sat down in, and they didn't like the look the fat cat, sitting curled in the only other chair in the room, was giving them. The settee turned out to be a very small one, obviously not made with two tall Air Force Officers in mind, and they couldn't escape the feel of each other as they were squashed together. They both shifted slightly to get comfortable, though neither of them felt any better. Mrs Mallory gave a satisfied smile.

"That's right get comfy dears. Now let's get down to it shall we," she bent forward in a conspiratorial manner and dropped her voice to a mere whisper. " It was late," she began, "well, actually it was dead on 23:13hrs, because I looked at the clock wondering why Maria was taking the kids out so late. They don't normally do that kind of thing ya know. They're such a quiet family, and the kids are okay if you know what I mean...well behaved. Not like a lot of the kids these days. They lack the discipline if you ask me. A good stint in the army is what they need..."

Jack coughed and cast a sideways glance at Sam who ignored him, concentrating instead on what Mrs. Mallory was telling them; hoping she'd get back to the necessary details anytime soon.

"Well," she continued, not missing the soft cough of frustration from Jack. "I saw her rushing around, trying to pile the kids and as much as she could of their things, into the car, then she took off in a tearing hurry. I can't tell you where they went, but my guess is they went to Lizzie's. She's the only real friend that Maria would trust in a crisis."

Sam took a quick peek at Jack to see if he recalled that this was where Paul had said they'd gone, in his note. If the Colonel did register it, he never gave any indication that he'd remembered.

"Soooo...Do you know where this 'Lizzie' lives?" Jack asked.

"Sure I do. Why shouldn't I? She is my daughter ya know."

"Ah... " Jack sighed, feeling bested as if he were a wayward child in her eyes. "Then I guess that would be a good enough reason for knowing her then."

"What about Paul? What happened to him?" Sam asked, impatient to know what went on last night, and to stop her CO from adding an untimely comment.

"Well, around 23:50hrs, I heard a car pull up. I don't sleep too well these days, and the slightest sound wakes me up. Takes me an absolute age to get back to sleep again. Anyway, I was still awake when I heard a noise, so I took a quick peek from my window. I thought perhaps it was Maria come home again but instead I saw three people, strangers, get out of the car. There was a fourth, a man, but he stayed behind the wheel. Two of them were men and one of them had long black hair tied back into a ponytail, and at first I believed it was a woman, then they turned round slightly and I realised it was a man..."

"How do you know that?" Jack interrupted. "These days they all look alike. How can you be sure it wasn't a woman? It would have been very dark at that time of night."

"Well gee...I guess the beard kinda gave it away," she sighed tersely, wishing that the Colonel wouldn't keep interrupting her flow and doubting her every word.

Sam sniggered and Jack just glared sideways at her, silencing her, so they could continue.

"Sooo..." he continued, ignoring the retort. "They were all men?"

"I believe I just said that."

Jack sighed, he'd never come across such a spirited and sarcastic old lady before, she was worse than his grandma and could give him as good as he could dish out on any given day.

"What happened next?" Sam urged.

"Well they walked up to the door and banged on it, but Paul didn't answer, so then two of them disappeared around the back of the house. Some minutes later they brought Paul out, holding onto him between them. He didn't look hurt or anything, but that doesn't mean to say they haven't already harmed him now."

"Were they carrying anything?" Sam continued to ply her with questions.

"Oh yes. Apart from their guns, they were hauling a sports bag along. It looked very heavy. It took two of them to carry it. Oh...and another thing; they were all Hispanic."

"How do you...? ...no wait, don't tell me, you heard them speaking Spanish. Right?"

"Of course. You know for a Colonel, you're very sardonic. I don't think I've ever met anyone quite as bad as you; except for my husband of course." Yes, her Tim would have gotten on well with this man, she mused, she was beginning to like this Colonel Jack O'Neill. Looking him over critically, she fleetingly wished for once that she was young again.

Jack swallowed the breath he'd just taken, choking over it.

"Why thank you Ma'am," he spluttered when he'd recovered his breath again. "Takes one to know one." He liked this woman, she reminded him of his grandma Bertha, the scourge of Minnesota.

Mrs Mallory let out a loud squawk of laughter and poured the coffee out, she was enjoying this verbal sparring. It had been a long time since she'd had anyone like him around to butt heads with.

TBC